Vendors Protest Sunset Ordinance

KEY WEST -- The crowds of tourists were there. The colorful street performers were there. And so was the spectacular sunset.

But the famed Mallory Square dusk celebration just was not the same on Friday.

For one thing, the street vendors and artisans were not selling. Their tables, usually filled with handcrafted items, were bare.

Most carried a single sign urging onlookers: Save Our Sunset.

The bright orange signs were the vendors and artisans` answer to an ordinance passed by the Key West City Commission on Thursday.

The commission voted 3-2 to require the vendors to pay a $4,000-a-month fee for using the dock.

It is a fee most street performers and dock regulars say they cannot afford. And they say it could be the ruin of the sunset celebration -- a Key West tradition and tourist attraction.

``It will drive out a lot of people who are just starting out,`` said Michelle Jessen, a silversmith who has worked at Mallory Square for 10 years.

``It will kill the spirit of sunset.``

About 50 vendors, mainly those hawking paintings, jewelry, psychic readings and T-shirts, went along with the silent protest. But many of the street performers, or buskers, went on as usual.

Still, Mallory Square`s carnival atmosphere was imbued with an undercurrent of anger.

One vendor set up a small cardboard coffin, painted black, in memory of the ``passing of sunset.``

``I am presenting myself as an artist the city will lose,`` Jessen said of the sales boycott.

Palm reader Monica Geers also shut down her business for the night, calling the vendors` fees a sign that ``the little people are being forced out.``

The protest caught some tourists by suprise, but most supported the vendors. ``As an artist, I would be packing my bags,`` said George Kurbaba, a New York resident. ``They don`t realize what they have here.``

Commissioners Kimmy Weekley, Sally Lewis and Virginia Panico, who voted in favor of the fees, say the city needs to get fair-market value for the city- owned dock.

Currently, the Cultural Preservation Society, which manages the sunset celebration, pays the city $3,730 a month for insurance, garbage pick-up and salaries.